CASE STUDY on Trials & Tribulations VS The Tribulation
2 Timothy 2:15
“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”
King James Version (KJV)
Disclaimer
Essential Background Study Links:
https://www.thethirdheaventraveler.com/2026/08/pretrib-harpazo-quake-seismic-truth.html
I posted the above study titled Rapture Shock on my X account and received the following comments and I responded here below:
https://x.com/andrewthtravel/status/2093808192576712954?s=46
https://x.com/vincent05254221/status/2093881734349897895?s=46
https://x.com/andrewthtravel/status/2093882731725762839?s=46
https://x.com/vincent05254221/status/2093884367244603395?s=46
https://x.com/andrewthtravel/status/2093889908188332146?s=46
https://x.com/vincent05254221/status/2093927381723389968?s=46
I use my response to the comment as a CASE STUDY for the purpose of learning for the Body of Christ.
Brother Vincent,
Thank you for your interest in this subject. I am responding from my blog studies so that my statements are not left hanging in the air. Please read and study them. The links are at thethirdheaventraveler.com—especially the pre-trib harpazo study and the workman-approved study on how to handle the King James Bible. I write this in charity and I am praying you can receive it and learn.
For the past twenty years I have given my life to serious King James Bible scholarship under the mentoring of brilliant PhDs ranging from linguistics and ancient Hebrew and Greek at the Harvard School of Divinity to Cambridge University tutors in English grammar. I am a licensed teacher in languages. That is not a boast. It is why I must correct a common error in Bible students using a concordance without the full discipline of solid hermeneutics. In my study on how to study the Word of God knowing we are commanded by God to STUDY (2 Timothy 2:15 KJV), I go over on proper use of tools like the concordance. This also includes the pit falls using AI. All tools are essential and useful but they must be used properly.
You posted James 1 and then Strong’s G3986 peirasmos—“a putting to proof… discipline or provocation… by implication adversity: temptation, try.” You said it “refers in Depth to more than just temptation. Discipline, Adversity… Many other translations refer to the word as Trials. It has a Deeper meaning.” From that you treat James 1’s “divers temptations” as the Tribulation itself—the Day of the Lord, the time of Jacob’s trouble, Daniel’s 70th week. I know you didn’t specify this but it is strongly implied and inference from my original post it is clear this is your meaning.
That is not exegesis. That is what scholars refer to as range-flattening. Range is not meaning. Context decides. This is why I begin all my studies with CONTEXT is foundational. And ultimately as I point out in exhaustive study, your analysis does not stand the scrutiny of harmonizing scripture with scripture.
1. Start where the letter starts: audience and context… CONTEXT IS FOUNDATIONAL
James 1:1 KJV: “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.”
Who. What. When. Where. Why. How. That is the first rule of a workman. These addressees are Jewish converts to Christianity—members of the new early church—and James is speaking to their current condition: severe persecution after the scattering. And the unimaginable persecution from Jews demanding they come back under the Law. This is the JUDAIZERS that ALL the apostles suffered under and all were murdered except John.
This is my lengthy studies that define the origins of Zionism through these Judaizers who even murdered John’s student Polycarp at Smyrna and why I wrote that extensive study on why Revelation 2:9 and 3:9 KJV is written to Smyrna and today’s Philadelphia.
James is definitely not describing the future seven-year period. The language of the apostles and prophets clearly distinguishes ordinary trials and tribulations from the Day of the Lord, the time of Jacob’s trouble, and the Great Tribulation. Context decides.
Paul uses the same distinction. He tells the churches they must through much tribulation enter the kingdom of God (Acts 14:22), that we glory in tribulations because tribulation worketh patience (Romans 5:3), that no man should be moved by these afflictions, for “we are appointed thereunto” (1 Thessalonians 3:3–4), and that “all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” (2 Timothy 3:12). That is present church-age pressure. The same Paul then draws a hard line: “For God hath not appointed us to wrath” (1 Thessalonians 5:9), and he separates that blessed hope from the Day of the Lord (1 Thessalonians 5:2–4; 2 Thessalonians 2:1–3). Present thlipsis is not Jacob’s trouble.
Peter does the same. He writes to elect strangers scattered, and he calls their sufferings “divers temptations” and “the trial of your faith” (1 Peter 1:6–7)—the same kind of language James uses. He says, “think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you” (1 Peter 4:12), and that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world (1 Peter 5:9). That is present persecution of saints. Peter never calls those trials Daniel’s 70th week.
James himself keeps the same line inside his own letter. Chapter 1 is “when ye fall into divers temptations”—present, various, the trying of faith working patience. When he points to suffering he points to the prophets and to Job as examples already accomplished (James 5:10–11).
The coming of the Lord and the Judge at the door (James 5:7–9) is not a license to rename chapter 1 as the time of Jacob’s trouble. Jeremiah 30:7 and Matthew 24:21 use a different contextual language: a day like none other, great tribulation such as was not since the beginning of the world. That is not “divers” everyday-and-persecution trials of the early Jewish church.
So the opening of James is the early church’s present fire—not the future seven-year wrath-period on Israel and the earth.
“When ye fall into divers temptations” is not a technical title for Daniel 9:27. “Divers” means various kinds—multi-colored, recurring trials of life that a scattered people actually meet. The grammar is present and general: when you fall into them, count it joy, because the trying of your faith works patience. That is sanctification language for brethren already living in a hostile world. It is not the unparalleled, time-stamped, covenant-wrath period reserved for Israel and the earth after the church is caught up.
This language looks like I clearly laid out in my Justification is our earnest inheritance whereby sanctification is how we build on that through our trials and sufferings (tribulations in the context of James 1). Also in my study links I go into the Kingdom and PATIENCE of Revelation 1:9 KJV which directly connects to Matthew 13 Kingdom parables to precisely what James 1 is referring to to encourage his followers in Jerusalem who are suffering terribly. Remember that James is the Bishop of Jerusalem and the half brother of Jesus Christ who had a front row seat to the persecution of Jesus Christ.
https://www.thethirdheaventraveler.com/2026/07/the-great-paradox-of-our-sanctification.html
2. Compare Scripture with Scripture—do not let one lexicon entry dictate the rest of the Bible. This is one of the biggest hurdles my students face and which I have faced as a student of doctrine in the King James Bible. This is what prompted my DOCTRINE STUDY if you're interested:
James uses peirasmos. The Great Tribulation / Jacob’s trouble / Day of the Lord language uses a different word-group and a different set of markers.
Jeremiah 30:7: “Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved out of it.”
Matthew 24:21: “For then shall be great tribulation (thlipsis megalē), such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.”
Daniel’s 70th week is a measured period tied to the covenant with the many, the abomination, and the holy city and holy people.
The Day of the Lord is darkness and wrath, not a “count it all joy” classroom for patience (Amos 5:18). That is why we are told not to desire it.
Believers in this age do have tribulation—thlipsis—John 16:33; Acts 14:22. That is not the same as the tribulation of Jacob’s trouble. If every peirasmos or every thlipsis is Daniel’s 70th week, then the 70th week has been running for two thousand years, “none like it” is emptied of meaning, and Daniel’s clock is useless.
The church is not appointed to wrath (1 Thessalonians 5:9). The pre-tribulation harpazo removes the Body before that wrath-period. Matthew 24 is Jewish-disciple, temple, Judea, abomination, flight language—Daniel and Jacob, not Pauline mystery language. Those two programs must not be flattened. That is the seismic point of this study:
https://www.thethirdheaventraveler.com/2026/08/pretrib-harpazo-quake-seismic-truth.html
3. Strong’s is a tool, not a doctrine machine
Your screenshot proves the problem. Strong’s gives a range. James 1:2–4 then defines the use: trying of faith → patience → perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. Then wisdom, then the double-minded man, then the poor and the rich, then the crown of life to the man that endureth temptation. That is present pastoral theology for scattered brethren. It is not a secret code for the seals, trumpets, bowls, beast, and mark.
The study on how to handle the King James Bible says it plainly: context is king; word studies removed from parallel passages produce error (I refer to this as the final acid test using scripture in the witness of 2 or more is every word established Matthew 18:16 KJV); lexicons do not override the text; we compare Scripture with Scripture and rightly divide (2 Timothy 2:15). You stopped at the dictionary superficial level and imported an entire eschatological system James 1 never names.
This is a violation of 2 Timothy 2:15 that we all struggle with.
That is the opposite of workmanlike handling. I do not judge you, believe me we all have to learn. This is why I continually teach use of a hard copy OXFORD Dictionary in the proper CONTEXT to fully grasp the etymological and epistemological implications.
Read and study this:
https://www.thethirdheaventraveler.com/2022/04/understand-bible-from-workman-approved.html
4. No solid scholar reads James 1:2 as “this is Daniel’s 70th week” The caution also on scholars. Please use the main 3 old timers over 150 years ago. I use Matthew Poole, John Gill, and Matthew Henry. The modern day scholars are apostate in many areas. See my study on the Church of Laodicea in the links I've provided.
Commentators who take the twelve tribes seriously still treat 1:2–12 as the common trials of diaspora Jewish Christians—persecution, poverty, oppression, the testing of faith—not as the technical Great Tribulation. Even those who hear eschatological notes in James 5 (“the coming of the Lord draweth nigh… the judge standeth before the door”) do not erase the opening chapter into the 70th week. Flattening peirasmos into Jacob’s trouble is a private leap. It has no control from the immediate context, no control from the book’s own argument, and no control from the rest of prophetic Scripture.
Brother, the argument falls apart the moment you apply the rules you skipped: context, audience, comparison of terms, and the distinction between the early church's measured trouble and the church’s blessed hope.
I have not even addressed the exegesis whereby you’ve overlooked the grammar and vocabulary distinctions between James 1 and the New Testament scriptures that clearly refer to The Tribulation vs Trials&Tribulations.
Please Look again at the studies on thethirdheaventraveler.com. The verbs, the audiences, and the programs do not collapse into one pile called “trials.” Read James 1 as James wrote it—to the twelve tribes scattered—and let the Day of the Lord remain the Day of the Lord.
I send this in love of the truth, praying you will study it that way.
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